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Saturday, 11 October 2014

The NCA Tour hasn’t even hit its halfway mark, but it is well worth having a update on the activities following the competitive crokinole world in the early part of October.

Ontario Doubles Crokinole Championship

Photo Credit: CrokinoleDepot

Brucefield will once again play host to the ODCC tournament. It’s the 2nd straight year in that venue as CrokinoleDepot co-sponsors the event with the Varna Crokinole Club. The previous 3 years of the tournament’s history included tournaments in Stratford, and the recurring theme of Brian Cook and Fred Slater coming away as the champs. But as that team was unable to join forces last year, Ray and Jason Beierling stepped up as they defeated Ron and Ray Haymes in the final.

While the tournament entry list is not finalized yet, expect to see the Beierling’s challenging for the title. The Haymes team as well as Tom and Rex Johnston and Matt and Dave Brown have a lot of chemistry and will also be strong forces at the event. The mix and mash of players as they team up for the event is always pretty interesting, so it will be fun to see the teams made up of some pretty strong doubles players like Jon Conrad, Fred Slater and Brian Cook.

However, like all crokinole tournaments, it will all depend on how everyone plays that particular day. And if you want to be there that day, contact ray@crokinoledepot.comto sign up.

A fanatic crokinole group exists in New York, and this Astroria-based tournament will enter its 4th edition on the 18th of October. By all accounts it is a terrifically enjoyable event, and word is that Demian Johnston will return in an attempt to reclaim the title. T-shirts are included with registration: http://www.chonercrokinole.com/register.html so how can you go wrong?

Normally analysis of NCA Tour standings are reserved later in the crokinole season when the races for the top spots have taken shape and players are close to clinching the top spot. Well it’s October, and don’t look now, but one player in particular is extremely close to cementing a high score with many tournaments to play.

If you have been paying attention, that player, unsurprisingly, is Justin Slater.

Rank

First

Last Name

Events

Min score

Points

1

Ray

Beierling

4

41

181

2

John

Conrad

4

36

169

3

Justin

Slater

3

50

157

4

Clare

Kuepfer

4

27

152

4

Roy

Campbell

4

34

152

5

Brian

Cook

3

45

150

6

Nathan

Walsh

3

47

149

7

Matt

Brown

3

43

141

7

Eric

Miltenburg

4

29

141

9

Fred

Slater

3

41

139

10

David

Brown

3

36

122

11

Jason

Beierling

3

32

117

12

Tony

Snyder

3

36

112

13

Dale

Henry

4

20

107

14

Peter

Tarle

3

27

98

15

Chris

Gorsline

3

23

89

16

Roger

Vaillancourt

2

44

89

16

Rob Jr.

Mader

2

43

89

18

John

Harvey

2

41

86

19

Cathy

Kuepfer

3

25

85

20

Raymond

Haymes

2

39

78

With only 3 tournaments player, Slater sits in 3rd place - 157 points. Supposing he racks up at least one more tournament victory before the St. Jacobs finale (certainly a feasible task), he’ll sit at 207 points.

207 would be particularly significant because only 4 other players have the potential to earn that many this season. Those players (along with their highest possible scores) are: Brian Cook (210), Fred Slater (210), Nathan Walsh (207) and Clare Kuepfer (207).

Of course, those numbers are only attainable by any of those players by winning 2 more tournaments, plus the NCA final in St. Jacobs. That would be a tough enough task without mentioning that Justin Slater makes it a habit of winning the St. Jacobs tournament (4 victories in 6 years).

While the crokinole season is still young, the race for the NCA Tour title may be over early.

CrokinoleCentre Rankings

The CrokinoleCentre rankings have been around for two years now and have been an interesting side project to look at every now and then. Here’s a look at the top 25 for both the singles category and the overall. A full listing the updated rankings can be found on the Crokinole Rankings tab above.

Rank

Name

Points

Rank

Singles Only

Points

1

Justin Slater

312

1

Brian Cook

295.5

2

Brian Cook

298.5

2

Ray Beierling

289

3

Ray Beierling

293

3

Nathan Walsh

284

4

Nathan Walsh

291

4

Jon Conrad

279.5

5

Fred Slater

289

5

Fred Slater

264.5

6

Jon Conrad

287

6

Matt Brown

250

7

Jason Beierling

273.5

7

Roy Campbell

243.5

8

Matt Brown

268

7

Eric Miltenburg

243.5

9

Roy Campbell

257

9

Jason Beierling

235.5

10

Clare Kuepfer

249

10

Justin Slater

229.5

11

Eric Miltenburg

247

11

Louis Gauthier

220.5

12

John Harvey

245.5

12

Clare Kuepfer

219

13

Dave Brown

232.5

13

John Harvey

215

14

Howard Martin

224.5

14

Howard Martin

213.5

15

Louis Gauthier

220.5

15

Robert Bonnett

196.5

16

Tom Johnston

218

16

Dale Henry

171

17

Peter Tarle

207.5

17

Peter Tarle

154.5

18

Paul Brubacher

198.5

18

Reuben Jong

151.5

19

Robert Bonnett

196.5

18

Dave Brown

151.5

20

Rex Johnston

195.5

20

Alex Protas

147.5

20

Tony Snyder

195.5

21

Gloria Walsh

143

22

Dale Henry

193

22

Peter Carter

136.5

23

Chris Gorsline

185

23

Tom Johnston

112.5

24

Reuben Jong

184.5

24

Chris Gorsline

109

25

Ron Haymes

183.5

25

Roger Vaillancourt

108

After Jon Conrad owned the number one ranking all last season, there have been significant changes. Ray Beierling grabbed the number one spot after the World Championships, then Brian Cook regained the throne after winning in New York. And now, Justin Slater has finally recorded enough tournament results to get a full ranking, and firmly sits at the top. While Walsh, Brown and Campbell have climbed to career highs, Slater has amassed a massive 312 points, which should secure the number one ranking at least until May of 2015.

Meanwhile, in the Singles Only rankings, Brian Cook still appears as the top name, though Ray Beierling has a good chance to challenge for that, should he get some strong results in the coming tournaments. In case you are wondering, Justin Slater has yet to play a full 4 singles tournaments in the past 12 months, (or the 12 months before that), leading to his lower score. He, along with Louis Gauthier, are ones to watch as they play in a few more tournaments, and their rankings rise as a result.

About Me

CrokinoleCentre was created to capture the competitive crokinole scene. It is hoped that Crokinole Centre will help stimulate interest in the competitive side of crokinole, and bring the game to the next level. If you have a crokinole story, club, or tournament to share, let CrokinoleCentre know.